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Snippets: The pre-interview homework

This is part of a series of articles to make your job hunting experience more meaningful with JobStreet.com.

Before you attend any interview -- and normally, you should do this days before the interview -- do your research and preparation. Try and find out more about the job and the company. What's the company background and how does it operate? It will boost the opinion of you in the eyes of the employers if you show the enthusiasm to know more of the company you hope to join.

Do check back on 10 Oct 2009 for more tips!

Preparation and research

Through a local recruiting firm, Cindy (not her real name) had landed a meeting with the chief financial officer of a retail company that she hoped to work for. After exchanging small talk, the CFO asked her: "So, what do you think of our stores?"

The candidate replied honestly that she'd never been in one.

Oops. Needless to say, she didn't get the position.

Preparation and research are always important when trying to land a job, and this is even truer in today's competitive market.

Employers have long commented that today's interviewees simply do not do their homework before they turn up for interviews. "We like people who knows a little of what we do, even though their knowledge may be very basic," one employer said. "Anything you can learn about the company is going to give you a leg up in the interview process. It helps you understand the business, know if it's a good fit and shows that you've taken the extra time and effort that every employer wants to see."

So where do you start? The Internet is a great tool, and a simple Google search and visit to the employer's website is a logical place to start.

At the very least, go to the company's website. If it's a consumer products company, find out what they make. If they're a financial services company, learn about types of services they offer. If it's a retailer, see what products they sell and where their stores are, and and make sure you go to one.

A Google search can turn up news coverage about the company, along with information that might be useful to know. If the company is publicly listed on the local stock exchange, there's usually a wealth of information available.

Making yourself more marketable

What can you do to make yourself more marketable to prospective employers? Here are a few tips to consider:

• Take a little time off to get your head together. A week or two, maybe longer. Then, tackle it head-on. It is a numbers game. The more contacts you make, the better chance you have of finding a job.
• Get involved in networking groups. Talk to friends, family and all the people you know. Tell them your story, plant lots of seeds. Eventually, one of those seeds will sprout. Draw your geographic circle wider and expand the search territory. Are you willing to relocate? If your family is not willing to move, are you willing to work somewhere during the week and come home on the weekends?
• An old favourite of ours: compose or update your resume. This is fundamental because it’s the first opportunity to impress a company or hiring manager. Weed out the typos and mistakes in punctuation. For such an important document which is like your professional name card, it should be well thought out and thoroughly proofread. It’s money well spent to work with a professional resume service.
• Express your email address and mobile number prominently in your resume. Today, front and centre, prospective employers need the ability to contact you electronically.
• Include a well-constructed chronological list of companies and positions. Your career experience and education are the most critical elements.
• Tailor the resume according to the audience. Have a good professional layout to set yourself apart from the rest of the pack because you’re competing against a lot of different people.
• When getting ready for an interview, practice, practice, practice. The more you practice, the more confident you’ll be and the more prepared you'll be to look the interviewer in the eye.
• At the interview, listen and be thoughtful and responsive when answering questions. Pausing to think about an answer is not a bad thing.
• After the interview, send a handwritten Thank You note. This is somewhat more powerful than just an emailed Thank You message.
• Lastly, keep a positive attitude because being on a job search is a full-time commitment.

Satisfied job seeker

Here's a recent message that we received recently. Thought it would be useful to share it all around. The Retrenchment Helpline is a service by JobStreet.com to help retrenched job seekers like Ravi Kumar with the search for their next job.

I am writing this as a token of appreciation for all the help and guidance provided by the Retrenchment Helpline team. About three months ago, I attended the resume clinic and also listened to talks at JobStreet.com after I had taken VSS with the American company I had been working for the past 12 years. I realized there were shortcomings in my original resume and with help from the team, I overhauled my resume. When I look back, I really pity the poor souls that had to read my old resume. With the new resume, between March 2009 and May 2009, I had attended more than 15 interviews in totally different industries ranging from recruitment, logistics, plantation, medical devices, FMCG to postal services. The overhauled resume format was a big help in getting me the first interview. When I say big, it was indeed BIG. I don't think that I would have been called for those interviews without it. For that, Daryl was instrumental in pointing me in the right direction.

Today, I am glad to share with you guys that I have been offered a Sales Manager (South East Asia and Middle East) position with a European company thanks to the good job done in part by the JobStreet team. I will be meeting my new employers next week to discuss terms and I am indeed really excited.

These past three months plus have been really challenging both mentally and emotionally for me. I never gave up and just moved on looking at all possible opportunities. Today, we are in a different job market. The job market is shrinking (but signs are there of a recovery) and employers have more choices than before. You have to be different than the others. Do your homework before the interview. For some job interviews for sales positions, I took a leaf from Daryl's previous job interview with Kensington and did a general overview of the company, the sales process that I use, opportunities and how I could contribute to the company. One word of caution, you would need to play this by ear. Do not try to go overboard because you need to be in the organization to get some information. The idea here is to show that you have gone the extra mile. It is also okay to indicate that the material you had put together is based on information that you had gathered on your own.

These days some employers are using tools to gauge candidates to determine if they can blend in. Personality profile assessment test and behavioural interview techniques are now being used. Some of these techniques use the candidate's past experience to determine if the candidate can fit in or not. The questions:

1. Tell me about yourself
2. Tell me about a mistake in the past, if given a chance what would you correct
3. Describe to me in a situation which would affect your personal and work ethics. What would you do?
4. How would you handle difficult people
5. What was the most challenging thing you had to do

and so on. Try to google behavioural interview questions. Do some homework so that you do not get overwhelmed. Sometimes the most basic questions can get you all confused.

Just a word for all you job seekers, NEVER give up. Always be positive and there is ample opportunity even in a downward economy. By staying positive, you feel confident and good and this attitude helps you in your interviews and also your daily activities. You have to help yourself first and there will be good people like the team at JobStreet to guide you. You are the captain of your ship and only you can determine your future.

I guess this has been a long email and I welcome questions to me directly. I would like to help those who have been in my position. I can be reached at rkumarsingaram@gmail.com.

Once again, I would not have been able to land this job with out the help from the JobStreet team.

JobStreet.com collaborates with BFM (89.9FM)

Listened to BFM on your radio dial lately? Well it’s all about Human Resource Management for the next three months every Monday as JobStreet.com, in partnership with BFM (FM89.9), brings industry experts on air to share their thoughts and banter with the host. Airing on Monday evenings on the Late Late Business Show between 5pm and 9pm, BFM targets business executives, finance professionals and the investing public. 

The collaboration came about with JobStreet.com wanting to highlight the importance of HRM – HR itself has become an integral part of some of the most successful companies around. To kick it all off, the inaugural interview covered the advent of online recruitment and how it changed the face of HR. The no-nonsense interview featured Mr Leslie Hayward, a Downstream HR General Manager (who has been with Shell for 19 years) as he elaborated on online recruitment and its relevance to Shell.

More recently, an interview with Param T. Moorthi, the HR Site Lead and HR Lead for Large Enterprise and Services APJ at Dell Global Business Centre, was held at the studios where he gave his two cents’ worth on talent development and how Dell handles it their way.

On top of all that, three of the most recent and hottest jobs by industry are read daily between Tuesday and Friday evenings, giving relevant job seekers everywhere a quick heads up on what’s available on the market.

You can be sure that this is just the tip of the iceberg. Stay tuned because more interviews are coming up!

Missed the interviews? No worries, just click on these links to listen to it online:

• The Emergence of Online Recruitment and Its Effects on HRM with Leslie Hayward, SHELL's Downstream HR GM for Malaysia & Indonesia
  

• The Relevance of Talent Wars in Today's Economic Climate with Angeline Low, GM, Group Human Resources - SP Setia 
  

• The Global Philosophy and HRM, with Param Moorthi, Site HR Leader, DELL Global Business Center 

JobStreet.com sends winner to Brands Hatch UK for A1GP!

It’s nice to watch races up close in Sepang,  but to actually catch one live overseas (the UK to be exact) must have been pretty amazing! That was exactly what one lucky JobStreet.com contest winner got to do. Ask anyone and they’ll tell you that Ang Kai Juan has come a long way from playing our A1 Team Malaysia JobStreet challenge at home, to watching it live in an all-expenses paid trip to the UK!  We recently caught up with Kai Juan following his return from the land of crumpets and tea…

JobStreet.com: Welcome back to sunny Malaysia. It must have been quite a weekend! Did you manage to do anything in the UK before the weekend races!

 

Kai Juan: It was a wonderful weekend. I maximized my time there and visited the city of London along with the four other winners. London is just wonderful and very picturesque. It’s also easy to get around in – a day travel pass for example gives me access to all train stations without paying a penny more!

I visited most of the famous spots in London like Buckingham Palace, the Big Ben, the London Eye, and even Madame Tussauds. I really enjoyed my time there and as you can see, I took quite a lot of pictures :D

Above: Hanging tight with the King himself

Above: Kai Juan with the London Parliament overlooking the river

Seeing as to how this leg of the race was hosted in a foreign country, was the atmosphere very different from Malaysia’s?

To be honest, the race at Brands Hatch was my very first A1 GP experience. Many fans of Ireland and Holland went all out in support of their teams with the Ireland fans wearing mostly green while the Holland fans were orange all over.

There weren’t many Malaysia fans though. Us aside, there were perhaps 20 others who supported the team. Another notable difference was of course the weather there – it was so much cooler in comparison to races in Malaysia where one would expect more rains.

While it was not the most impressive of races for the Malaysian team, what was your most memorable moment during the races?

I would have to say that it would be during the start of the Sprint Race. Aaron Lim, the main driver for A1 GP Malaysia, had some problems then and had to start his race in the pits. It’s encouraging that he still managed to finish the race in 16^th place though.

We heard that you even got a chance to visit the pits! Could you tell us some of the nifty things you observed “behind the scenes”?

Actually most my time was spent sitting in my seat. But when I did get the chance to go behind the scenes (usually before or after the races), I was amazed at how hard everyone was working to ensure that the car was in the best condition possible.

The atmosphere was tensed as they scrambled to adjust the various settings and prepare for the next race. I think there was even a specific person whose sole job was to monitor the car’s tire condition and temperature! Yet another advantage of going back to the pits was getting a chance to see the many A1GP race queens there. I won’t go into the details ;D

And having said all that, have you ever thought about joining the pit crew?

I did think about it – it would be interesting to work in a team. The travelling aspect of the job is also admittedly pretty amazing! What’s even cooler is if I was given the opportunity to work with the team Malaysia – I’m extremely proud to be a Malaysian. But I guess when push comes to shove, it will depend solely on a person’s interest. We should all pursue the ambitions of our childhood.

What about being the man behind the wheel? Have you ever wanted to be a race car driver?

Not really, because to be a racer isn’t easy – I feel that you will need to start from a very young age to be successful. I did however get my fair share of the limelight during the Saturday races when a few people mistook me for Aaron! They wanted me to sign their books. Of course, I quickly cleared things up and no, I didn’t give them my signature!

Above: Kai Juan stands next to the real deal!

That must have been quite an experience! What about the team manager? Do you think the he or she has it any easier?

I am certain that the team manager himself has a larger burden to bear, but it really depends on how he faces and takes up the challenges from each race. The commercial director’s task alone is more than impressive! He’s basically in charge of sourcing and managing commercial partners.

During the trip I got rather close to team Malaysia’s commercial director, Owen Leed, who is a funny guy but means business when it comes to work! Despite his many responsibilities, he still found time to take care all of us. I guess you need to be very independent. I was in awe at the way he handled the arrangements of the press conference at hotel *immediately* after the races!

We will be running the competition once again when the new A1GP season starts – any advice to future participants?

You should just enjoy the game and have fun with it. I for one didn’t think I could win and never thought that far to begin with. I put it down to sheer luck! When I got the call I was suspicious and thought it was a scam (I’m glad it isn’t)! I must say though – I thought the extra 2 seconds given to JobStreet.com members really helped. I’d like to thank JobStreet.com again for the opportunity! ;)

Together at Brands Hatch: From left, Ang Kai Juan (JobStreet.com A1GP challenge winner), Jack Cunningham (A1Team Malaysia CEO), Owen Leeds (A1Team Malaysia Commercial Director), Raja Azura Raja Mahayuddin, Syed Abdul Qader Mohd Ansari and Azirruan Bin Arifin

Envious? Well don’t be -- just keep a lookout for this year’s JobStreet.com A1GP challenge!

Feeling restless?

Why not practice those fingers and see where you really stand in our A1GP Challenge! Click here to register and play!

Snippets: A picture is worth a thousand words

This is part of a series of articles to make your job hunting experience more meaningful with JobStreet.com.

The person you are meeting for the first time does not know you. Neither would you know him. Therefore, your initial appearance is usually the first clue that the interviewer has to go by. The key to a good impression is to present yourself appropriately. Start with your grooming. A clean and tidy appearance is appropriate for an interview. Get a good haircut or shave. Wear clean and tidy clothes. Have a neat and tidy make-up. Appropriate dressing and grooming will help you feel calmer and have greater confidence. Add them all up and you are well on your way to creating a good first impression to the interviewer.

Do check back on 10 Jun 2009 for more tips!

Right preparation

You may be the smartest candidate short-listed by the company but if you think that the job is already yours for the taking without you having to prepare for the interview, please think again. The silliest thing for any job seeker to do is to walk into any interview unprepared.

When you go to an interview, you must be prepared to face the persons on the other side of the table. After all, they are going to be the ones that are going to decide whether you have a future with their company. So shouldn't they be the ones that you try to impress?

Making impressions come in many ways. Take, for example, the very first impression you can possibly make: the way you dress to the interview. Now, you can easily put them on their guard by turning up with unkempt hair and wrinkled clothes or you can warm the interviewers by looking spick and span like a professional. Which one would you prefer? The choice is yours to make.

In cast you think that it doesn't matter much, we've had companies passing remarks to us about candidates showing up for interviews in jeans and other inappropriate attire. These are for professional positions. To them, the impression was that if this was how a candidate already looked when he was supposed to be at his best, they wouldn't want him to represent their business.

The other types of impression are internal. For example, impressing the interviewers with your knowledge of the company. Before any interview, do a research on the company. With the Internet at our fingertips, there is no excuse not to do this. Go to the company's website and read the "About us" section.

You should walk into an interview knowing things such as the company's size, products or services and their target markets. Google the company to see if it has been in the news recently. It's also a good way to uncover the company's reputation. If possible, google the hiring manager and try to find out more about him.

All these boils down to smart preparation. If you can prepare and demonstrate during the interview that you did your homework, you will surely have broken down some of the barriers between you and the interviewers.

Snippets: Interview appointments

This is part of a series of articles to make your job hunting experience more meaningful with JobStreet.com.

Do not accept the interview appointment if you are not interested in the job. If you have accepted, please ensure you will make yourself available during that time to attend the interview even if you have found another dream job. 

Do check back on 30 May 2009 for more tips!

Snippets: First impression

This is part of a series of articles to make your job hunting experience more meaningful with JobStreet.com.

Job interviewers can usually tell whether or not you are an ideal candidate for the job within the first minute. It’s called the first impression. Your personal appearance, outfit, facial expressions and body language can make or break you. To make a great first impression, walk in with confidence but not cockiness, give a firm handshake and not a limp one, introduce yourself in a pleasurable tone of voice, make eye contact, sit up straight, show your enthusiasm and take a deep breath! Always dress for success with a nice pant or skirt suit, even if the position or job is casual. Lay low on heavy cologne, perfume and makeup. And whatever you do, don't be late!

Do check back on 30 Apr 2009 for more tips!